Awesome: Wall Street Genotype
“Successful stockbrokers have specific genetic traits that distinguish them from other business specialists and probably from traders who take too many risks or who are too timid or indecisive.
Genotyping of 60 experienced stockbrokers revealed a predomination of an allelic pattern associated with dopamine receptor 4 promoter and catecholamine-O-methyltransferase, both of which modulate synaptic dopamine. Specifically, the alleles are associated with maintenance of moderate levels of synaptic dopamine.
The genotype did not occur with any frequency in a control group of MBA students who were not stockbrokers, as reported online in PLoS One.
‘I think this research dispels the popular notion that the most successful Wall Street traders are risk-taking cowboys,’ Paul J. Zak, PhD, of Claremont Graduate University in California, said in a statement.
‘What we see is that traders who are genetically predisposed to be either too risky or not risky enough will not last in the business.’”
